


Loving You is All Me

by MalevolentMagpie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Halloween, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Potions, SHEITH - Freeform, Sheith Halloween 2020, TrickOrSheith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26852674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalevolentMagpie/pseuds/MalevolentMagpie
Summary: While traveling on the castleship, the Paladins hear of the famed elixir of the Mir - a substance that can purportedly make people fall in love. When Keith's pining after Shiro gets to be too much to stand, his fellow paladins decide to give him and Shiro a push in the right direction.For Sheith Halloween 2020, TrickOrSheith Week 2 Grab Bag, Prompt: "Potion"
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	Loving You is All Me

“I miss Halloween,” said Pidge as the group suffered through Lance performing what Keith had to begrudgingly admit was a fairly decent rendition of ‘I Put a Spell On You.’ In a rare moment of post-training downtime, they had all (Shiro excluded) gathered around the large, circular recessed couch in the paladin lounge of the castleship.

Hunk nodded balefully from the other side of Pidge. “I miss pumpkins, and pumpkin pie, and all the Halloween decorations in the stores, and Halloween parties…”

Lance finished his crooning with a wink and finger guns aimed squarely at Allura, then faced the rest of them again. “Alright! Any other suggestions? But remember, they have to be _seasonal.”_

“I think we stopped having seasons when we jettisoned into space in a giant mecha lion,” Keith muttered below his breath.

 _“Love Potion No. 9!”_ Hunk called out with a fist in the air.

“You got it, buddy,” said Lance, and he jumped up on the low table in the center as he began singing again. _“I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth…”_

Coran returned from the kitchens shortly after with a basketful of hydration packets and started handing them out to the paladins. “What is the meaning of this song?” he asked the other paladins conversationally while Lance continued twirling idiotically in the background.

“Uh, a love potion is basically like a fictional substance that makes anyone who drinks it fall in love, or attract people. It’s just a plot tool in fantasy stories back on Earth,” Hunk explained.

Coran nodded while twirling his mustache. “Ah, like the elixir of the Mir! But why is it fictional on Earth? Do humans not have the technological expertise to make it?”

The three paladins not currently singing stared at Coran. 

“Because it’s impossible?” said Pidge finally. “There’s no such thing as a real-life love potion. You can’t just make people fall in love.”

“Well, ‘love’ maybe no. I suppose it depends on what you mean by love. But unless you humans are vastly different in brain structure than most of the sentient species in the universe -doubtful- the elixir of the Mir should work on you.”

Lance stopped singing and turned to Coran. “Hold on, are you telling me that there actually IS a magic potion that can make people- _beings_ fall in love?”

Pidge looked thoughtful. “I suppose the mechanisms behind love and lust are theoretically capable of being affected, like all else in the brain, by chemical interference...” Her glasses gleamed in the light. “Coran, do you think I could get my hands on a sample of this solution? I’d love to run some experiments!”

“We could make a quick pit stop to visit the Mir. They are a major industrial civilization with incredibly prolific manufacturing capability. If the Galra have taken over there, too, it is of vital strategic importance that we liberate that system as soon as possible.”

“Coran is right,” Allura mused. “The Mir would be a powerful ally to have in our corner at these early stages. Besides, they are relatively close by. I can’t believe we didn’t think of it before, honestly. This is an excellent idea! Where is Shiro?”

“Bonding time with Black,” Keith answered automatically. 

The rest turned to him in surprise. 

Keith stared back, wide-eyed. “What? I saw him heading in the direction of her hangar after sparring practice.”

“Anyway, it’s decided. We will head to Mir. Keith, go and tell Shiro so we can begin to plan our attack in the event that the Galra have already gained a foothold on the planet.”

~~~

They all breathed a sigh of relief a few quintants later when they hailed the planet and received confirmation that the Mir were still a free people. While Allura and Coran prepared to meet with the Mir heads of state to advocate for an alliance with the Voltron Coalition, the paladins were given time off by Shiro to explore the capital city. 

“You guys have been working hard, you deserve to have some fun - within reason,” he added with a side glance at Lance and Pidge, who were already whispering excitedly between themselves. “Remember that while on this planet, you represent not just all of Earth, but also Altea and Voltron.”

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance vanished into the market crowd almost as soon as Shiro dismissed them; Keith, on the other hand, lingered uncertainly beside him. 

“What’s up, Keith?”

“Are _you_ going to take the day off?”

Shiro hesitated.

“That’s what I thought. You have to rest, too, you know?”

“It’s… different, Keith. There’s so much to do. And I’m the head, it’s my responsibility-”

“That’s bullshit.”

Shiro’s brows jumped up.

“You told me once that part of being a good leader was knowing when to take care of yourself so you would have enough energy to support your team.”

Keith could tell by the way that Shiro’s gaze deviated that he was trying to think of a way out of his own teachings. Like hell Keith was going to let him find it.

“If I leave you here, you’re just going to go back to training and pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion, and then where will Voltron be?” he pressed, hardening his countenance.

Shiro searched Keith’s hard gaze, but Keith knew he had won when those broad shoulders finally dropped in resignation. Shiro chuckled. “You’re right; resting from practice is as important as practice itself,” he sighed, then held out a hand for Keith to take. “Then, shall we take a look around together?”

Keith willed himself to maintain a cool facade as he took Shiro’s hand. It was ridiculous to hold hands, of course - it’s not like either of them risked getting lost, even in this crowded outdoor marketplace. But he happily kept his mouth shut and let Shiro pull him around to each of the vendor stalls. If Keith had been a daydreamer, which he would staunchly deny to anyone who suggested such a thing, he might have allowed himself to pretend for at least a little while that he and Shiro were on a date back on Earth, and that Shiro returned even a fraction of the feelings Keith secretly held for him.

~~~

The paladins and Alteans converged on the castle ship shortly before nightfall, only to find that Pidge and Lance had beaten them all there, and had apparently spent most of their day trolling through the marketplace to find approximations of what on Earth would be Halloween party decorations. One of the smaller ballrooms in the castle ship had been co-opted for the occasion, and outfitted in every kind of dark-colored garland and orange bauble imaginable. Lance had somehow even charmed a group of locals into coming aboard (much to Allura’s dissatisfaction). 

“The music isn’t quite right, but I’d like to think it’s a decent simulacrum of a traditional Terran Halloween party,” said Pidge as she sidled up to Keith in the corner that he had claimed for himself via dark looks and his general aura of unapproachability. 

“Where did you guys even find all this stuff?”

“Oh, here and there…”

“Is that a real animal?” said Keith as he squinted at a bat-looking ‘decoration’ hanging from the low ceiling of the party room. 

“It’s dried,” Pidge replied cryptically. 

Keith shrugged and went back to the important task of observing Shiro as the latter expertly mingled with a Mir local. Keith was trying to decide whether the Mir was purposefully leaning into Shiro’s space or Keith just couldn’t read the twig-limbed species’ body language.

“You should say something, you know,” said Pidge at his side. 

“Nah, it’s not clear yet whether she’s leaning or not- Wait, what?” He turned to look at her, but regretted it instantly when he saw her sporting a knowing smirk. “What were you talking about?”

“What were _you_ talking about? I was saying that you should tell Shiro how you feel. You never know, he might feel the same way.”

“What? How I- I don’t feel,” he sputtered.

“Uh-huh.” She sipped her neon orange drink. “Look, because I’m such a good friend, I’m going to help you out at the expense of satisfying my academic curiosity.” From one of her belt pouches, she pulled out a little vial of a dark indigo liquid that seemed to sparkle in the light when she swirled it in her hand. 

“Is that…?”

She nodded. “The elixir of the Mir. I was able to find a vendor at the market that sold it and was _going_ to analyze the sample in the labs, but this feels like a nobler cause.”

“Pidge, I’m not going to _roofie_ Shiro.” 

“It’s not a roofie! Based on what I’ve been able to find out so far, it should be perfectly safe for human consumption. In fact, I’m not sure it would have any effect at all on humans, so you’d be doing me a favor in testing it out.” With a glance behind Keith, she quickly placed the bottle in his hand and disappeared among the party goers with a last, hurried, “Good luck!” 

“Hey Keith,” came Shiro’s voice from over his shoulder. “Where’d Pidge run off to? She took one look at me and was gone.”

Keith looked down at the little bottle in his hand.

“Is that the famed elixir Lance was talking about?” 

“Yeah. Pidge wanted me to test it out to see if it would work on humans.”

Shiro threw his head back and laughed heartily. God, but Keith loved it when he did that. His whole face lit up like sunbeams through the clouds. It made it impossible for anyone to look away.

“There’s no way,” Shiro said. “I bet something was lost in translation with Coran and it’s just some type of liquid medication for ED.”

Keith laughed too, then shot him a smirk. “Oh yeah, then why don’t you try it and find out? I dare you.”

It had always been a little-known fact, even back in the Garrison, that Takashi Shirogane, responsible, competent leader and all-around do-gooder, had a competitive streak a mile wide. Keith was one of the privileged few to have ever found that out firsthand, and he was reminded of the fact now when Shiro’s eyes narrowed and sparkled mischievously. Challenge accepted. 

Before Keith even had a chance to wave off the joke, Shiro had grabbed the tiny bottle from his hand and downed the whole thing in one gulp. 

“Christ, Shiro! Pidge said it was _probably_ safe for human consumption, but-”

Shiro laughed again. With exaggerated nonchalance, he shrugged and threw his arms wide with a flourish as if presenting his body for inspection _(if only_ , thought Keith). “I don’t feel anything on my end. Do I suddenly look attractive?”

Keith’s brain warred against his tongue to fight back the first, and most honest, answer that came to him. Instead he said, “Same as always, unfortunately,” because _unfortunately_ Shiro was still as devastatingly handsome as always and, as always, it was ruining Keith’s life. 

“Hm, that’s a shame,” said Shiro somewhat dreamily. His gaze felt a little softer now as he looked at Keith, almost unfocused. 

“You still feeling alright?” 

“Definitely. Never felt better.” But the color was ever so subtly rising in his perfectly sculpted cheeks, and he wouldn’t stop _staring_ at Keith. 

“Uh, do I have something on my face?” Keith asked, lifting one hand to his mouth. 

Shiro shook his head. The laughter from before was gone, replaced with a quiet intensity. With a start, Keith realized that Shiro was slowly leaning further and further into his space. He cast around for Pidge, but she was nowhere in sight.

“No,” Shiro answered a tad later than would normally be expected. “I was just thinking about how beautiful you look tonight.”

Keith’s heart stopped. Half of his brain couldn’t believe he had actually heard the words, while the other half was currently occupied with replaying them on a continuous loop. It was something he’d never dared to dream he would hear from Shiro, and it was under the worst circumstances.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m taking you to your quarters.” Keith grabbed Shiro’s wrist and began pulling him through the party crowd towards the door.

“Really?!” It was almost funny, the way Shiro perked up at that.

“Not- not in _that_ way. Stop looking at me like that. We just gotta get you someplace safe and private where you can be alone to ride out the effects of whatever this is.” 

But Shiro reversed the grip on his wrist and whirled them around to push Keith up against a nearby wall. “What if I don’t want to be alone?” His soft, gunmetal-gray eyes bored into Keith, a thousand words hidden in their depths. “What if I don’t ever want to be further from you than we are right now?” He pushed further against Keith, until their bodies were nearly touching and Keith could feel the heat from Shiro and heat in his own cheeks. 

“Shiro, listen to me carefully. You don’t mean what you’re saying. It’s just a weird alien drug - we’re gonna flush it out of your system and everything’s gonna be fine. Everything’s going to go back to normal.” Back to Keith’s silent pining and Shiro’s blissful ignorance, as things should be. All would be right with the world. 

Shiro smiled tenderly down at him; Keith could feel Shiro’s breath on his lips and the mere thought of it was slightly overwhelming. “I don’t care about the drug; I feel fine. Just suddenly realizing that there are a lot of things I should’ve told you a long time ago and now I can’t remember why I’ve waited this long. Keith... I love you. I always have, probably always will. I don’t ‘want’ so much as _need_ you. Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do without you...”

Shit. This hurt so much more than Keith could’ve imagined. To finally hear the words he would have killed for, and to know it was all a lie. The corners of his eyes prickled. “Sure. Sure, Shiro. That’s great. Let’s just, go back to your room first though, okay? Then we can talk about it some more in private.” 

Shiro nodded like a lovesick puppy and finally backed off to let Keith move away from the wall. They walked in silence through the castle halls until they reached Shiro’s room, then Keith waved for him to go first and immediately after punched in the emergency override code to lock him inside. He would have approximately 10 minutes before the others were able to come and verify with their own codes that there was good reason to lock the door, else the system would time out and Shiro could override the lock and get out. He took the 10 minutes to slide down with his back against Shiro’s door and try to get his breathing under control. 

_“Keith? What’s going on? Keith! Keith!”_ came the muffled voice from the other side.

“I’m sorry, Shiro.” He sniffed. “This is for your own good. You’ll thank me when you turn back into your real self.” 

_“What are you talking about? I’m fine! Keith!”_

“Yeah... But I’m not.”

The rest of the paladins came sooner than expected. Keith swiped the back of his sleeve roughly over his face when he heard them coming, but it was clear from their faces that they could tell he’d been crying. Strangely, they didn’t ask any more questions after Keith gave them a run-down of what had happened. He made his escape to his room soon after, too tired to let himself think about what their reactions meant.

Pidge and Coran ran bloodwork on Shiro the next day, and by lunchtime he was deemed fully cleared of the elixir. In the coming weeks, no one asked or talked about what had happened at the “Halloween” party, especially not Keith or Shiro. But Keith caught a few lingering looks occasionally from Shiro when the latter thought Keith wasn’t looking. Keith still hadn’t decided if they resembled concern, embarrassment, or something else.

Keith, meanwhile, was a mess. Despite attempting not to think about things, he couldn’t help feeling despondent and it was beginning to affect his fighting. He tried as best he could to hide it from the others, but after a particularly nasty run-in with some Galra scouts one day, Shiro made a point to stride into the medical wing while Keith was bandaging himself. The others had fared well enough to not need medical attention, so Keith was alone. There was no escaping the conversation. 

“Look, Shiro, I know what you’re gonna say, and I’m sorry, okay? I was distracted, and it got me in trouble, and I put the team’s safety in jeopardy. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” He didn’t dare look up from where he was bandaging his calf; he didn’t think he could handle seeing the disappointment on Shiro’s face right now. 

Shiro’s voice was gentle, however. “Keith. That’s not why I’m here.”

Keith flinched. Disappointment or not, he would prefer a discussion about his battle performance to the alternative. Well, if Shiro was determined to do it now, Keith wouldn’t make it easy for him. 

When Keith didn’t say anything more, Shiro continued. “You seem to be… distracted a lot these days. You’re not eating, and from the looks of those bags under your eyes you’re not sleeping well, either.”

Keith finished the last wrap in silence and carefully tucked the ends under, muscles vibrating under the strain of their tightly controlled movement.

“What’s got you so distracted?”

“Oh come on, Shiro!” Keith finally burst out, throwing the roll of bandage wrap at the wall. “You know. What’s the point of making me say it?”

Shiro sighed. “I think I owe you an apology.”

“For god’s sake, don’t _apologize._ I don’t wanna hear it.”

“But I want to say it,” he returned. “I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. I wasn’t myself and said some things that I had always planned to keep to myself. I had, I swear. I realize this complicates things because of our positions, but I promise-”

Keith had stopped listening. He was stuck on just one thing, and as before found himself half in disbelief he’d heard it and half playing it on repeat as though through a loudspeaker in his brain. 

“Wait, wait - what was that?”

“That I’m sorry, I promise I won’t let my feelings affect our work with Voltron, or our friendship. Though I understand if this would make it too hard for you to stay friends-”

“No, no, no- the other thing. What you’re apologizing for. That the things you said, you… meant.”

Shiro blinked. “Y- yeah. Did you think-? But, if you thought it was just the love potion, then why have you been so… upset…” Shiro trailed off, and as he did something seemed to settle in his expression. 

It was suddenly very difficult to look Shiro in the eyes, with the way he was staring intently at Keith. It was the way potion-drunk Shiro had stared, except he was now stone-cold sober. 

“Keith… I think I need to properly tell you something, and this time we’re going to talk for real, even if I have to lock both of us in this room to do it.”

He couldn’t help the giggle that escaped him. It gave him the courage to finally face Shiro, and then he found he couldn’t look away.

“Keith, I’m... I’m fairly desperately in love with you. I’ve always loved you - admittedly in a different way when you were younger.” He laughed. “But I think even then I somehow knew that you were always going to be a big part of my life in one way or another. Now I know that you were always meant to be the _biggest_ part of my life, the part around which all others revolve.”

Keith gaped. Above all else, he resolved, he absolutely would not cry. “Th- the potion,” he rasped out. 

Shiro shook his head with a smile. “Figures that when I finally told you, you wouldn’t believe me. Keith, you know the potion’s effects are temporary. Unless it can also fabricate extremely detailed and convincing memories from every year of my life since October 10, 2310, then I’m pretty sure loving you is pure Shiro.”

Keith laughed, still somewhat shocked, and looked down to hide his wet cheeks. “God, who knew you were such a sap. Did you really memorize the date you came to my school?”

“How would you know unless you memorized it too?” 

When Keith finally looked up, Shiro’s smirk was victorious, mischievous, smug, and the most beautiful goddamn thing he’d ever seen. 

“Well?”

Keith dragged a hand down his face, and grinned at Shiro through his fingers. “Yeah well I’ve had a lot of years to think about the day I met the love of my life.” 

As if he had been waiting for that confirmation, Shiro immediately gathered Keith up in his arms. They’d hugged countless times before, but this felt different somehow. Closer. Keith, half dressed as he was, felt acutely aware of every inch of skin that was touching Shiro. And just how close he was to being completely undressed. 

Shiro pulled back almost shyly as he asked, “Can I kiss you?” 

All of Keith’s embarrassment was swept away by the wave of affection that crashed through him. This man in his arms was so precious, so dear. “Of course you can,” he said softly, and shifted to meet him in a kiss as gentle as stardust.

~~~

Several hours later, the two men emerged from the medical wing to knowing or suspicious looks from their teammates. One look at Keith seemed to answer any questions they might have had, however, because the looks quickly turned gleeful. 

“Congratulations!” said Allura. 

“Freakin’ finally,” muttered Hunk. 

“You’re welcome, _Keith,”_ Pidge gloated. 

“Yeah, thanks a lot for your part in drugging my boyfriend at a party and causing me untold emotional anguish in the aftermath, _Pidge,”_ Keith quipped back. 

“Eh I knew it would all turn out well. Anyone with eyes who isn’t a complete dumbass could tell from the way Shiro looks at you. It was obvious.” 

_“What?”_ Lance cried out, offended. “Obvious to _who?”_

Shiro just stared slightly moony-eyed at Keith, who raised a brow in question. “You called me your boyfriend…,” Shiro murmured. 

“Alright fine, then if Shiro was already in love with Keith, what the hell did the potion do?” Lance groused.

Pidge thought about it while polishing her glasses. “I imagine if everything was already in place and there was no feeling of affection to create, then the Mir’s love potion would probably just function as an enhancer of some sort. Like, lowering inhibitions towards expressing said love, or -who knows- maybe just making the person really, really horny. Shiro, did you have an erection lasting longer than four hours that night after Keith left?” 

They all burst out in raucous laughter at the joke except for Shiro, who reddened and frowned. One by one the paladins and the Alteans’ laughter died on their lips and morphed into mortified gaping as they assessed their noble leader. For the next few days, the paladins were subjected to particularly grueling training and by unspoken consensus no more was ever said on the subject.  But the next time the castleship passed by the Mir system, Keith and Shiro picked up a couple of extra bottles for the road. 

THE END.


End file.
